Chapter 57

his own countrymen, and he fails to do justice to opponents like the Samnites and Carthaginians.

In dealing with the legendary period he admits that his narrative has no trustworthy foundation, and gives it merely for what it is worth: Praef. 6, 'Quae ante conditam condendamve urbem poeticis magis decora fabulis quam incorruptis rerum gestarum monumentis traduntur, ea nec adfirmare nec refellere in animo est. Datur haec venia antiquitati, ut miscendo humana divinis primordia urbium augustiora faciat.'

The numerous speeches exemplify Livy's rhetorical tendency, representing what he thought the speaker would have said under the given circumstances: iii. 67, 1, 'ibi in hanc sententiam locutum accipio.'

His power of describing character is noted by Seneca, _Suas._ vi. 21, 'Quoties magni alicuius viri mors ab historicis narrata est, toties fere consummatio totius vitae et quasi funebris laudatio redditur. Hoc ... T. Livius benignius omnibus magnis viris praestitit.'

_Religion and morality._--Livy believes in the influence of the gods on human affairs: ix. 1, 11, 'cum rerum humanarum maximum momentum sit, quam propitiis rem, quam adversis agant dis.' Superior to the gods is _necessitas_ (ix. 4, 16), and _fortuna_ is also powerful (ix. 17, 3; v. 37, 1). He condemns the irreligion of his own day (x. 40, 10, 'iuvenis ante doctrinam deos spernentem natus'), cf. iii. 20, 5; viii. 11, 1. He retains the old belief in prodigies and portents, every war being introduced by a list of them, but recognizes that many reported instances were fictitious: xxi. 62, 1, 'Multa ea hieme prodigia facta, aut, quod evenire solet motis semel in religionem animis, multa nuntiata et temere credita sunt.'

He condemns the vices of his own age, and lauds the old Romans: Praef. 12, 'Nuper divitiae avaritiam et abundantes voluptates desiderium per luxum atque libidinem pereundi perdendique omnia invexere.'

_Politics._--Livy is an aristocrat, with a poor opinion of the lower orders: _e.g._ xxiv. 25, 8, 'Ea natura multitudinis est: aut servit humiliter aut superbe dominatur; libertatem, quae media est, nec cupere modice nec habere sciunt.' His political attitude is influenced to a great extent by the earlier historians, who had mostly been on the aristocratic side. Yet he is not a defender of the aristocratic party through thick and thin; and though he admired the character of some leading republicans, there can be no question of his loyalty to the Empire. Cf. Tac. _Ann._ iv. 34, 'Scipionem, Afranium, hunc ipsum Cassium, hunc Brutum nusquam latrones et parricidas, quae nunc vocabula imponuntur, saepe ut insignes viros nominat.'

Livy's view of Caesar is quoted by Seneca, _N.Q._ v. 18, 4, 'in incerto esse utrum illum nasci magis rei publicae profuerit, an non nasci?'

_Contemporaries of Livy._--1. _Pompeius Trogus_, whose history is known to us only through the abridgment made by M. Iunianus Iustinus, probably in the time of the Antonines. Trogus was of Gallic descent. His grandfather had received the Roman _civitas_ from Pompey; his father was one of Caesar's officers, and is possibly to be identified with the Cn. Pompeius of Caes. _B.G._ v. 36 (Iustin. xliii. 5, 11). His chief work, _Historiae Philippicae_, in forty-four Books, was concerned chiefly with the history of Macedonia and the Diadochi; but it embraced also the empires of the East and the history of Greece down to the time of Philip, as well as Parthia, Spain, Carthage, and the early history of Rome.

2. _Fenestella_, who died, according to Jerome, in A.D. 19 at the age of seventy. Nothing is known of his life, or of the poems which Jerome attributes to him; but he certainly wrote _Annales_ (Nonius, p. 154). He is also quoted as an authority on miscellaneous antiquarian and constitutional points.

3. _M. Verrius Flaccus_, tutor to the grandsons of Augustus (Sueton. _Gramm._ 17), was the author of _Fasti_, fragments of which have been discovered near Praeneste, and which were used by Ovid for his poem of that name. Of Verrius' grammatical works, the greatest was that entitled _De verborum significatu_ (Gell. v. 17, 1), arranged alphabetically. It is lost, but we possess part of an abridgment (nine out of sixteen Books) made by _Sex. Pompeius Festus_ before the third century A.D. The abridgment of Festus was in turn epitomized by _Paulus Diaconus_ in the time of Charlemagne, and his work is extant in a complete form.

4. _C. Iulius Hyginus_, a freedman of Augustus and librarian of the Palatine library (Sueton. _Gramm._ 20), wrote _De vita rebusque illustrium virorum_ (Gell. i. 14, 1); _Exempla_ (Gell. x. 18, 7); _De situ urbium Italicarum_ (Serv. _ad Verg. Aen._ iii. 553); _De familiis Troianis_ (ibid. v. 389); theological works, _e.g._ _De dis Penatibus_ (Macrob. _Saturn._ iii. 4, 13); commentaries on Virgil and Helvius Cinna; and _De Agricultura_, a treatise to which Virgil was indebted (Colum. i. 1, 13). The Hyginus who wrote _Fabulae_ and _De Astrologia_ probably lived in the second century A.D.

VITRUVIUS.

Vitruvius Pollio (the cognomen appears only in the abridgment of his book) served under Caesar in Africa B.C. 46; viii. 3, 25, 'C. Iulius Masinissae filius ... cum patre Caesari militavit. Is hospitio meo est usus. Ita cottidiano convictu necesse fuerat de philologia disputare ...'

Under Augustus he was an officer of engineers, and was enabled to spend the rest of his life in comfort through the liberality of that prince and his sister Octavia: i. praef. 2, 'Cum M. Aurelio et P. Minidio et Cn. Cornelio ad apparationem ballistarum et scorpionum reliquorumque tormentorum refectionem fui praesto et cum eis commoda accepi. Quae cum primo mihi tribuisti, recognitionem per sororis commendationem servasti. Cum ergo eo beneficio essem obligatus, ut ad exitum vitae non haberem inopiae timorem ...'

He wrote the treatise _De Architectura_, in ten Books, when he was no longer young (ii. praef. 4, 'faciem deformavit aetas'), between the years B.C. 16 and 13. The temple of Quirinus, mentioned iii. 2, 7, was built in the former year; and he speaks of only one stone theatre in Rome (iii. 2, 2), whereas in B.C. 13 there were three.

The arrangement of the subject-matter is as follows: Book i., sciences on which architecture is based, chief divisions of the subject, choice of site, and method of laying out a town; ii., building materials; iii., temples--Ionic order; iv., Doric and Corinthian orders; v., public buildings, _e.g._, forum, theatre; vi., private houses--construction; vii., decoration; viii., water-supply; ix., methods of measuring time, _e.g._, sun-dials; x., engines and machines used in war and in the arts.

The work is dedicated to Augustus, who is addressed throughout, and is meant to be of practical use to him in his building operations.

The body of the work is severely technical; the introductions to the Books are in a more ambitious style. Vitruvius writes as a professional man, not as a scholar: i. 1, 17, 'Non uti summus philosophus nec rhetor disertus nec grammaticus summis rationibus artis exercitatus, sed ut architectus his litteris imbutus haec nisus sum scribere.' He freely confesses his obligations to Greek authors, whom he enumerates vii. praef. 10-14. Diagrams were appended to the text: i. 6, 12, 'Quoniam haec a nobis sunt breviter exposita, ut facilius intellegantur visum est mihi in extremo volumine formas, sive uti Graeci +schêmata+ dicunt duo explicare.'

SENECA THE ELDER.

(1) LIFE.

Annaeus Seneca (for the praenomen Marcus, usually given, there is no authority: in the best MSS. it is Lucius, possibly through confusion with his son) was a native of Corduba: Mart. i. 62, 7,

'Duosque Senecas unicumque Lucanum facunda loquitur Corduba.'

The date of his birth is probably about B.C. 55, for he was old enough to have heard Cicero if the civil wars had not prevented him leaving his native town: _Contr._ i. praef. 11, 'Omnes magni in eloquentia nominis excepto Cicerone videor audisse: ne Ciceronem quidem aetas mihi eripuerat, sed bellorum civilium furor, qui tunc orbem totum pervagabatur, intra coloniam meam me continuit.'

He was of equestrian rank; cf. the speech of Seneca the younger, Tac. _Ann._ xiv. 53, 'Egone, equestri et provinciali loco ortus, proceribus civitatis adnumeror?'

Most of his life appears to have been spent in Rome, where alone he could have acquired his vast knowledge of contemporary rhetoric. Together with his countryman Porcius Latro, he attended the lectures of the rhetorician Marullus: _Contr._ i. praef. 22, 'Hoc Latro meus faciebat, ut sententias amaret. Cum condiscipuli essemus apud Marullum rhetorem ...' Asinius Pollio he had heard at two different periods: _Contr._ iv. praef. 3, 'audivi illum et viridem et postea iam senem.'

Seneca's wife was Helvia, whose noble character is described by her son (_ad Helv._ 14, 3; 16, 3): by her he had three sons, M. Annaeus Novatus, L. Annaeus Seneca, and M. Annaeus Mela.

He survived Tiberius; for (1) he alludes to events which happened after his reign, (2) Sueton. _Tib._ 73, quotes from 'Seneca' an account of the death of Tiberius, and we know that the elder Seneca wrote history: that his son did likewise there is nothing to show. Hence he was alive after A.D. 37. On the other hand, he was dead before his son's exile in A.D. 43, for Sen. _ad Helv._ 2, 5, after enumerating the calamities which had befallen his mother--among them his father's death--concludes with the words 'raptum me audisti: hoc adhuc defuerat tibi, lugere vivos.'

Seneca was a man of stern character: for his old-world views and dislike of innovation cf. his son's words (_ad Helv._ 17, 3), 'Patris mei antiquus rigor ... Virorum optimus, pater meus, maiorum consuetudini deditus.' He disapproved of the higher education of women, 'propter istas quae litteris non ad sapientiam utuntur, sed ad luxuriam instruuntur.'

(2) WORKS.

The only extant works of Seneca are _Oratorum et Rhetorum Sententiae, Divisiones, Colores Controversiarum et Suasoriarum_.

1. The _Controversiae_ were written at the request of his three sons, but were intended for a wider circle of readers: i. praef. 10, 'Quaecumque a celeberrimis viris facunde dicta teneo, ne ad quemquam privatim pertineant, populo dedicabo.' Seneca here gives a criticism of the rhetoricians of his time, with specimens of the style of each: i. praef. 1, 'Exigitis rem magis iucundam mihi quam facilem; iubetis enim quid de his declamatoribus sentiam qui in aetatem meam inciderunt indicare, et si qua memoriae meae nondum elapsa sunt ab illis dicta colligere, ut quamvis notitiae vestrae subducti sint, tamen non credatis tantum de illis, sed et iudicetis.' The specimens are given from memory, and the arrangement is not systematic: i. praef. 4, 'Illud necesse est impetrem, ne me quasi certum aliquem ordinem velitis sequi in contrahendis quae mihi occurrent.' Seneca treats only of those rhetoricians whom his sons had not themselves heard: i. praef. 4, 'Neque de his me interrogatis quos ipsi audistis, sed de his qui ad vos usque non pervenerunt.' His hero is Cicero, since whose time oratory has steadily degenerated: i. praef. 11, 'Illud ingenium quod solum populus Romanus par imperio suo habuit'; _ibid._ 7, 'Omnia ingenia quae lucem studiis nostris attulerunt tunc nata sunt: in deterius deinde cottidie data res est.'

Of the ten Books of _Controversiae_ only five have come down to us, viz., i., ii., vii., ix., and x. The deficiency is to some extent supplied by an abridgment (_Excerpta_) made in the fourth or fifth century A.D., which adds thirty-nine themes to the thirty-five contained in the surviving part of the original work. Each Book had a separate preface. Those to v., vi., and viii. are entirely wanting; for the prefaces to ii., iii., and iv. we are indebted to the abridgment.

The _Controversiae_ were written when Seneca was an old man, and when his two elder sons were preparing for public life, probably about A.D. 20: x. praef. 1, 'Sinite me ab istis iuvenilibus studiis ad senectutem meam reverti'; ii. praef. 4 (to Mela), 'Fratribus tuis ambitiosa curae sunt foroque se et honoribus parant.'

As to the date of publication, it has been argued[71] that they appeared after the fall of Seianus and before the death of Mamercus Scaurus, _i.e._, between A.D. 31 and 34. Probably, however, the publication did not take place till after the death of Tiberius, A.D. 37; the protest against the burning of books (x. praef. 6-7) would have been as offensive to him as to Seianus.

2. There is only one book of _Suasoriae_, and the beginning of it is lost. It gives specimens of the treatment of seven themes, _e.g._, 3, 'Deliberat Agamemnon an Iphigeniam immolet negante Calchante aliter navigari fas esse.' It is certainly later than the _Controversiae_: _Contr._ ii. 4, 8, 'Quae dixerit suo loco reddam, cum ad suasorias venero.' One passage cannot have been written before A.D. 34: 2, 22, 'Scaurum Mamercum, in quo Scaurorum familia exstincta est.' It was not published in the lifetime of Tiberius, for Seneca calls the accuser of Scaurus 'homo quam improbi animi tam infelicis ingenii' (2, 22), and quotes Cremutius Cordus (6, 19) whose books had been burned in Tiberius' time.

3. Seneca wrote also on Roman history from the commencement of the civil wars to his own time, but left the work of publication to his son.

L. Seneca _de vita patris_ (Haase, vol. iii. p. 436), 'Si quaecumque composuit pater meus et edi voluit iam in manus populi emisissem, ad claritatem nominis sui satis sibi ipsi prospexerat ... Quisquis legisset eius historias ab initio bellorum civilium, unde primum veritas retro abiit, paene usque ad mortis suae diem,' etc.

Footnotes to Chapter III

[41] M. Valerius Probus of Berytus (Sueton. _Gramm._ 24) who flourished, according to Jerome, A.D. 56, prepared critical editions of Lucretius, Virgil, and Horace. A commentary on the _Eclogues_ and _Georgics_ passes under his name, but most of it is spurious.

[42] A grammarian of the fifth century A.D., who merely versifies Donatus.

[43] On this point Professor W. M. Ramsay writes to us: 'Virgil's farm was certainly not at Pietole (which is two miles south of Mantua, out in the flat plain): for (1) the farm was a long way from the city (cf. _Ecl._ 9, 59 _sqq._); (2) it was beside hills (_ibid._ 7 _sqq._); (3) woods were on or by it (cf. Donatus "silvis coemendis"), and the flat fertile valley was certainly not abandoned to forests. After exploring the country, I felt clear that the farm was on the west bank of the Mincio, opposite Valeggio, where the northern hills sink to the dead level of the Po valley.'

[44] His knowledge of science is reflected in his works. Cf. _Georgics_, passim, and _Ecl._ 3, ll. 40-2.

[45] The latter part of this statement is worthless: Augustus was only a child when Virgil came to Rome.

[46] Probus is manifestly wrong in saying that the distribution of land took place 'post _Mutinense_ bellum.'

[47] For details see H. Nettleship, _Ancient Lives of Vergil_, who holds that there was really only one eviction.

[48] The writings of Augustus are enumerated by Sueton. Aug. 85--(1) _Rescripta Bruto de Catone_, a reply to Brutus' pamphlet on Cato; (2) _Hortationes ad Philosophiam_; (3) _De Vita Sua_; (4) Life of Drusus (Sueton. _Claud._ 1); (5) Poems: 'Sicily' in hexameters, Epigrams and Fescennine verses; a tragedy, 'Ajax' (never finished).

[49] Servius wrote 'triennio' perhaps because he thought only of the dates of _Ecl._ 1 and 10 (H. Nettleship, _ibid._).

[50] C. Schaper's view is that _Ecls._ 4, 6, and 10 were not written till B.C. 27-25 for a second edition. He supposes _Ecl._ 6 to allude to the marriage of Marcellus and Julia in 25 (referring 6, 3 to the _Aeneid_), and _Ecl._ 10 to be a lament for Gallus, who committed suicide B.C. 27.

[51] Iulus is properly spelt Iullus (as in inscriptions), and is for Iovillos, a diminutive from the stem of Iuppiter.

[52] L. Orbilius Pupillus of Beneventum, who in his +Perialgês+ complained of the wrongs of his profession (Sueton. _Gramm._ 4 and 9).

[53] Maecenas wrote, besides smaller prose works, a history of his own times (Hor. _Od._ ii. 12, 9; Pliny, _N.H._ vii. 148).

[54] For Horace's relations to Propertius see _Ep._ ii. 2, 91-101, and under '_Propertius_,' p. 196.

[55] See G. Boissier, _Nouvelles Promenades Archéologiques: Horace et Virgile_ (Paris, 1886).

[56] Dr. A. W. Verrall's argument (_Studies in Horace_, pp. 25 _sqq._) that _Od._ i.-iii. were published B.C. 19 is not convincing.

[57] Ed. by Mommsen in _Ephemeris Epigraphica_, 1892, p. 225.

[58] For Horace's eclectic position in philosophy, cf. _Ep._ i. 1, 14-15,

'Nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri, quo me cumque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes.'

[59] As suggested to us by Prof. W. M. Ramsay. For Horace's opinion of Catullus cf. _Sat._ i. 10, 18-9,

'Simius iste, nil praeter Calvum et doctus cantare Catullum.'

[60] See Th. Mommsen, _Sitzungsberichte der königl. preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Berlin_. 24 Jan. 1889.

[61] A Peripatetic of the third century B.C., who wrote a popular account of the literary and philosophical views of his school.

[62] E. Voss, _Die Natur in der Dichtung des Horaz_ (Düsseldorf, 1889).

[63] As pointed out by A. W. Verrall, _Studies in Horace_, p. 134 _sqq._

[64] This poem is probably referred to by Hor. _Od._ iv. 4, 19-22.

[65] M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus, author of memoirs of the Civil War (Tac. _Ann._ iv. 34), love poems (Pliny, _Ep._ v. 3, 5), and works on grammar (Quint. i. 7, 35).

[66] Dessau, _Inscr. Lat. Sel._ 2925. _Serg._ stands for _Serg[ia tribu]_, and is not a cognomen _Sergio_.

[67] See Pliny, _Ep._ v. 9, 2.

[68] This question was first satisfactorily worked out by T. Dyer, _Classical Museum_ for 1847, p. 229 _sqq._

[69] See under 'Juvenal,' p. 323.

[70] Pollio accused him of Patavinitas, _i.e._ the use of provincialisms (_verba peregrina_, as opposed to _Latina_, Quint. i. 5, 55, _curiose loqui_ rather than _Latine_, Quint. viii. 1, 2).

[71] By A. Diepenbrock, _L. Annaeus Seneca_, p. 12 (Amsterdam, 1888).